LARKANA: Lawyers took out a rally on Wednesday in protest against the federal government’s decision to construct Diamer-Bhasha dam over the Indus.

Larkana District Bar Association general secretary Imdad Ali Tunio, Ali Akbar Dahar, Sajid Mahesar and others were in the lead of the procession taken out from the bar. Carrying placards and chanting slogans, they assembled at VIP Road near the court and blocked its one lane. They said that since 1859, Sindh’s water share had been “robbed” through Anderson Committee, Cotton Committee and in 1945 Rao Committee.

If seen historically, Punjab had been “stealing” Sindh’s water, they said. Even after 1991’s water apportionment accord arrived at during Jam Sadiq Ali days, it was Punjab again that had violated the word, they added.

The international water treaties in clear terms said that riparian areas had the first right on water, but in contravention to it, Sindh’s water had been driven away through illegally constructed canals and branches on River Indus.

They censured the federal government for awarding the contract of the dam without consulting the provinces and “robbing” Sindh’s water. Technical data showed that there was no surplus water in the system; how could the required water be kept in the dam, they asked?

Already, they said, thousands of acres of virgin agriculture land had been eroded and ruined in Badin and Thatta districts as mandatorily required water to be released downstream Kotri into Arabian Sea was not available in the Indus.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2020